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Wednesday, 13 June 2012

Xcite! Marvel Avengers Alliance game: Review & Tips!

If you've read this post, then you're probably already playing Marvel: Avengers Alliance on Facebook. If not, then it's not too late to start playing now. It's a pretty fun for an FB game, that's bound to keep you occupied for hours- or errr, at least until your energy runs out on you.

I've been compiling this post ever since I started playing the game (i.e. Feb 29, when the beta got live out here in India). Having reached level 100 on Sunday, I thought it would be fitting to FINALLY post about what I love & loathe about the game & some tips & tricks I've learnt along the way or that others have told me about. Consider this to be my review for the game as well.

NOTE: Due to the many changes that have taken place ever since this post, some info here may be outdated (& I have struck through those). For all the new MAA changes/updates & tips go HERE!Get all the deats on Spec Ops #6 out HERE!

LOVE
*Story- I really like the clever way in which they've woven in almost EVERY villain & the corresponding heroes who usually go up against them. So even if you aren't totally into comics, there's a whole range of characters you'd end up learning about that you might not have been aware of before...

*Graphics- aren't bad for a Facebook game. LOVE the character designs & their powers as well as the weapons & their effects! I also really dig the sound effects.

*Some challenging levels- Some missions can be a REAL BITCH! I remember having a real hard time trying to beat the Chapter 3 Mindless Ones & Hacked Servoguards for the first time!

*Keeping things dynamic- New stuff is being constantly introduced: new Chapters (currently 7/10 Chapters are up on the game), Special Operations (Spec Ops 001 is underway where you got the task of 5 starring 3 S.O. missions to acquire Mockingbird in your hero roster), new weapons, new heroes (Black Panther was the latest, with 5 more new heroes set to be introduced!), new costumes, etc.

*Dialogues- LOVE the dialogues! Some are really funny & witty! And the dialogues before Boss fights are also real fun!

*Customization- The ISO-8 concept makes for a pretty nifty way of allowing you to strengthen your heroes & agent & see which crystals work best. Alternate hero costumes enable you try out different classes & see the ones that are most effective.

LOATHE
*Can't play as a hero!- Yep, you're playing as a SHIELD agent. In the earlier levels you're neither high on power nor weapons, so on most agent turns you just end up playing nurse to your heroes- seeing to their HP & stamina needs, etc as your weapons just won't do much damage & you get owned by the Bosses in no time!

*Slow start- The beginning feels boring cos its so damn easy! I actually reached level 4 in no time & didn't see the challenge at all! After about 2-3 days however, I went back to the game & got hooked.

*Unfair pricing- New characters, weapons, etc are quite often priced differently for different players for god knows what reason! Even the conversion rate for gold to uISO differed for some people during the Spec Ops (for me it was 1 gold = 5 uISO, the way it should've been for everyone. But for some it was 1 gold = 3 uISO).
^The Avengers movie tie-in, limited edition Coulson's Revenge weapon had a whole range of different prices for different players!

*Cumbersome training- Thank god Playdom drastically reduced the training times! I used to perpetually have 2-3 characters lined up in training backlog. Now they seriously gotta bring down the training costs. The main issue however, is being able to train only ONE hero at once. I mean, really?!?

*Team-Ups- In Boss & (optionally) mini-Boss battles, a hero is temporarily teamed up with your team. While some team-ups are really spot on (eg. Spiderman, War Machine), most characters chosen for the team-up come from a fighting class that is neutral or weak against the Boss!

In his premium mission (4.6), Wolverine is strong against mini-Boss Toad but Blob is stronger against him & Boss Sabretooth is of same class, so neutral. >

*There today, gone tomorrow- Character prices change, characters & weapons get nerfed (or as in Cap & Thor's case- buffed), so you gotta constantly stay on top of things.

*Ally troubles- If a friend on your allies removes you from their friend list, they are not automatically removed from your allies & you can't remove them manually either. So you'll be stuck with a low-level ally that may even take up a spot on your list of 50 allies at the bottom of your game screen. Ditto for a friend who was previously playing the game, but has now blocked it.

*Money-grabbing tactics- I've played quite a few online games, but never before have I witnessed a game company that is just so blatantly all-out to get your money. I think the Spec Ops 001 left a bad taste in the mouths of many MAA players (like me) who just play FB games for the fun of it & don't have any intention of spending any cash on them.

Then with only 7 days left for the S.O. to end, PD decides to compensate, by increasing the time limit by another week, drastically lowering the margins for acquiring the stars in the 3 missions, making the battles waaay easier, & buffing up the Boss bonus weapons! It was so weird (in a good way :P ) that after their maintenance on that particular day, I refreshed my game & was welcomed by the message above- I had acquired the pesky Mockingbird, despite the fact I had to still get 2 more stars!

TIPS & TRICKS:
*2 Birds, 3 of a Kind- Every mission has a fight with mini-Boss/es & the main Boss. Don't tackle them separately, instead try beating them in one battle by straightaway choosing the main Boss fight. This gets your score multiplied by 5 for every Boss/mini-Boss you duel. I always try this first & only fight them separately if my heroes seem incapable of beating them this way.

< This is from Hulk's premium mission. I got my battle score multiplied by 15 cos I fought mini-Bosses, Iron Clad & Power Armor, together with Boss, Abomination.

*Pairing Bonuses- You can get bonus points added to your final fight score simply by pairing certain heroes together. Here's a list of Team Bonuses (each for 50 additional points):

Characters

Bonus Name

Any X-Men members

X-Force

Any Fantastic 4 members

Fantastic

Any Heroes with a Flying ability

Aviary

Thor /Hulk /Hawkeye /Black Widow /Iron Man /Captain America

Assemble

Thing /Hulk /She-Hulk /Phoenix

Tossers

Dr.Strange /Mr.Fantastic /Ironman

Illuminati

Hulk /Spiderman /Ironman /Mr.Fantastic /Black Panther

Egghead

Wolverine /Black Cat /Sif /Black Panther

Bloodlust

Spiderman /Black Widow /Spiderwoman

Arachnophobia

Thor /Sif

Asgard

Luke Cage /Iron Fist

Heroes for Hire

Kitty Pryde /Black Cat /Black Panther

Cat Fight

Spiderman /Black Cat

Cosplayers

Daredevil /She Hulk

Ambulance Chasers

Dr.Strange /Hulk

Defenders

Hawkeye /Black Widow /Mockingbird

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Storm /Black Panther

King & Queen

And the best pairings would be:

Characters

Bonus Names

Bonus Points

Cyclops /Phoenix

X-Force, X-lovers

100

Kitty Pryde /Colossus

X-Force, Hard and Soft

100

Phoenix /Storm

X-Force, Aviary

100

War Machine /Iron Man

Tinmen, Aviary

100

Iron Man /Mr. Fantastic

Illuminati, Egghead

100

Invisible Woman /Human Torch

Sibling Rivalry, Fantastic

100

Phoenix /Human Torch

Aviary, Hotstuff

100

Phoenix /Ms. Marvel

Marvelous, Aviary

100

She-Hulk /Hulk

Green Giants, Tossers

100

Hawkeye /Black Widow

Frenemies, Assemble, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

150

Hawkeye /Mockingbird

Birds of a Feather, West Coast, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

150

^A behind the scenes video for the game. There's 3 more parts to it but I can't seem to find 'em online.

*Making your agent less wimpy- Playing as an agent can be a real bore, unless you've managed to buy some neat weapons or snag 'em from deploys/Boss battles. By completing all the missions (including the Premium Mission) in a chapter upto 5 mastery stars, you'll acquire the golden weapon for that chapter. Check chapter briefings to know the one you'll get. Also don't spend too much on suits earlier on. By stage 65, you'll be able to purchase badass Trenchcoat suits that have 6 & 8 ISO slots!

*Complete Premium Missions first- 5 starring all the other missions first makes the Premium Mission tougher. So if you've got the character required for the Premium Mission in a chapter then after 1 starring all that chapter's missions, 5 star the Premium Mission first & then continue with the rest.

*Catching stars super-quick! From Chapter 4 onwards, to proceed to the next chapter you'll need more Mastery stars after completing that chapter's missions once. Check the missions from previous chapters & see which has the lowest margin to get the next star. Replaying missions from the 1st few chapters when you are on say, Chapter 4 or 5, will not fetch you much XP (useful if you don't want your heroes leveling up too soon while you got a huge training backlog), but you might just finish that mission two stars richer as you'll rack up points with Vitality, Overkill, Survival, etc. Use proper team member pairings & you'll get your score even higher!

*Getting Command Points fast n easy!- CPs are, at times, not that easy to come by. You can exchange your gold for CPs, BUT besides this you can also start "CP farming"! It's been noticed that you get an almost sure-shot CP drop when dueling the epic bosses. Though Doctor Doom is a favorite for many, he didn't help me at all. Elektra, however, is a guaranteed CP-giver! Plus the battle will fetch you 65 XP on losing which is higher than all the other epic bosses.

Different players have different conditions under which they think CP drops are more certain & I got my own list of favorable conditions for farming with Elektra:
-Melee attacks, especially 2-hit melee attacks (eg. Daredevil's Billy Club, Spiderwoman's Brawl, Black Cat's Cat Scratch) work best on Elektra.
-If you aren't able to get CP in the 1st Round of the fight, use Dardevil's Radar Sense & then use the Billy Club on Elektra.
-If melees aren't successful, & if you MUST resort to ranged attacks then use 1 that hits all 3 foes at once.(eg. Thor's Summon Thunder, Storm's Tornado)
-I won the X-ploiter (but you can get it here) so in the first Round I use it on the foes & then hit Elektra (or the 2 ninjas) with my Super Blade Punch. Not a guaranteed CP-giver but it has worked on many occasions.
-If NONE of these work for the first 2 rounds then use a Coagulator on your team (to stop bleeding), increase health to prolong their life & then continue trying the above tips.

*Acquiring silver speedily!- Contrary to what most players do for Flight Deck missions (i.e. use the heroes they play with the least), I suggest using your highest level heroes. The higher the level of your hero, more is the payout bonus. Of course, you'll need to have a sufficient number of heroes to be able to do this, but once you can, by all means do it! Also by the time your jets reach level 5 (at level 65), you won't have to worry about not getting enough silver through FDs. While you're actually playing the game, send your heroes on 20 minute FDs- they'll not only finish quick, but you'll probably be get sufficient silver so you can buy the items to prepare for your next battle. When you're away use the 2/6/12/24 hour FD options.

^(L) My jets at level 5. (R) At level 100, you can level up your jets to 6.

*Accept your request gifts during battles while playing- At the start, the Health & Stamina Packs 1 & frag grenades are actually useful. So don't accept all your gift requests unnecessarily or you'll hit your gift limit & may fall short of an item while fighting. Instead, during battle when you run out of Stamina or Health, accept those requests before your next fight. Also pick up your energy & SHIELD points by daily visiting your allies' maps.

*Don't accept ALL distress calls- When visiting friends' maps, don't accept distress calls from those who are on lower levels. The higher the level your friend is on, the stronger & more effective will be the help you get. Choosing calls from everyone will in fact distress you when you get a useless agent/low level hero to fight on your behalf who deals almost no damage! Of course, if you have few friends playing the game, well, then you don't have much of a choice then, do you? ;P

NOTES:
*Scoring parameters--Vitality: Amount of health you have left by the end. Use health packs towards the end to increase your health.
-Overkill: Bonus for achieving overkills/massive overkills/epic overkills during fight.
-Rounds= 500 - Number of team-turns it took to defeat the enemies.
-Victory: For winning the battle
-Body Count: For each enemy defeated
-Quartermaster: Using high number of items during the fight.
-Endurance: For this, don't increase your stamina by clicking the recharge button, use stamina packs.
-One Shot: Bonus for killing enemies in 1 move.
-Assemble: Bonus for using Cap & Hulk in this fight. Other bonuses are mentioned above.
-Survival Multiplier: Number of surviving heroes at the end of the battle
-Epic Boss Fight Multiplier: This fight was an epic Boss battle.

*Mission completion Mastery star rewards-

No. of Mastery stars

Reward

1

250 silver coins

2

1000 silver coins

3

100 XP

4

1 Gold

5

5 CPs

*My Top 10 Heroes:
1. Hulk (GREAT for one shot kills, epic overkills)2. Thor (Get his Might of Mjolnir stacked by 2 & he works wonders!) >
3. Captain America (2 words- Shield. Guard.)
4. She-Hulk (Her 2nd power gives her 2 turns & the combo of her & Stomp is quite killer!)
5. War Machine (His Overcharge used with ANY of his other 3 powers is BADASS! He has been nerfed but he's still awesome.)
6. Doctor Strange (His Vapors of Valtorr & team-healing Teresing Boost are very nifty indeed!)
7. Spiderman (He protects the other team members & counters when attacked by tacticians)
8. Storm (Lightning+Blizzard+Tornado=WIN! Plus her protective shroud is very nifty)
9. Daredevil (His Radar Sense lets him counter when attacked by anyone)
10. Ms. Marvel (Use her Absorb Energy along with any of her other powers.)

*Worst Heroes: (Note- In no order. Not recruited em yet since they are generally known to be meh.)
Sif, Nightcrawler & Mr. Fantastic.

*My Top 3 Weapons:
1. Super Blade Punch (the Energy Fist is a substitute, but this is one of the BADDEST weapons there is!)
2. Digital Decoy (helps your agent & 2 heroes evade single-attacks for 3 turns each)
3. Power of 4 (Gives your agent 4 extra turns. However, I only use this weapon in PvP cos your agent dies in the end :P )
Note: There may be MANY other more badass weapons out there, especially the ones you gotta purchase with gold, but these are the ones I've used & can vouch for.< My agent's current setup (12/06/2012), along with the weapons that I use in my 4 slots. I just recently tried replacing the x-ploiter with my newly acquired laser spotter & it seems to be a very nifty weapon indeed!

FINAL VERDICT: The game manages to keep you occupied AND entertained. It's fun to hire your fave Marvel heroes & fight against the villains- both known & unknown. You'll learn about loads of villains you may not have even heard of which is cool. For being just a FB game, the graphics are pretty neat. I would've rated the game an 8/10, but after seeing the way Playdom treated their loyal players during the Spec Ops 001, I'll give my final rating of 7/10.

SOME SUGGESTIONS TO PLAYDOM:
*Energy consumption for EACH fight is 10! I think the easy fights should consume 3 energy, medium- 5 & hard- 10. It would make sense to have the max limit of the energy bar increased to 100 from 60.

*Revise the drops of SHIELD points, CPs & energy- When visiting allies, instead of 3 SPs, give 2 SPs. AND give 2 or 3 energy instead of 1. Also be more generous with CPs. We shouldn't have to resort to farming all the time in order to get them. Some of us got SHIELD points in the 1000s, but energy & CPs are ALWAYS needed.

*Changing up the gifts- Remove ISOs & Norton Shields as gifts; they get pretty useless as you advance to higher levels & I don't think many use them. I understand that Norton sponsors for the Shields, but then at least buff them so that they are more useful. Thankfully Playdom has discontinued sending frag grenades as gifts & the Avengers movie tie-in shawarma gifts (right >) are an AWESOME replacement! Frankly I'd also say the Health & Regen packs are useless later but then I know how much I used em when I was on lower levels.

*Cumbersome refresh messages- I suggest making that message closable/minimizable, to prevent loss of energy or progress. It's mighty irksome when you are in the middle of a battle & a message appears that forces you to refresh.

*Way too early announcements for upcoming events- Chapter 7 took forever to arrive. Waiting for it for so long dulled my anticipation & I have yet to even start it! I've been trying to 5 star missions from the other chapters (4/7 done). And then came the then-dreaded Special Ops 001!

*More returns for PVP- Many don't play it cos they don't get anything out of it. Make the XP received at the end 20-30 if you win & 10 if you lose. Increase the chance of CP drops (& now the unstable ISOs) in PVP as well.

*Training improvements- Thanks for reducing the training time, now please slash the costs- it's REALLY high! Also allowing multiple heroes to be trained at once makes A LOT of sense. In the X-Men's Danger Room, it's not just 1 member getting trained right...?

*Flight Deck Missions- It would be nice if the FD window simply had a dropdown option where you can select the number of minutes/hours you want the FD mission for, with the highest option at 24 hours.

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So there you have it folks! My MAA JUMBO post ends here...Do post your comments about any questions about the game or any rants & raves of your own :) And you can always add me on Facebook- just find my FB profile button out here on the right...

About Me

I became a huge X-Men fanatic ever since I watched the first X-Men film back in 2000. Since then my voracious appetite for all things X has just grown & finally led me to starting my own blog in 2011. Hope you'll enjoy it!